| Abstract |
"When the old man died, the thronging citizens of Milan stopped and lined the streets to watch his funeral cortege go by. As the hearse passed, there rose from all those throats the sound of music--the famous chorus of exiles from Verdi's great success, Nabucco. For never has a composer so captured the loyalty and devotion of his fellow countrymen as did Giuseppe Verdi with his twenty-nine operas in his eighty-seven years. From his village birthplace, through years of training under the local organist and finally in Milan, Verdi was catapulted into early prominence. After Nabucco, his third work, opera after opera came from his pen until his great three, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, and La Traviata, arrived in quick succession. But greater things were yet to come. It is the thesis of this book that Verdi left his crowning achievements in Aida, in the Requiem, in Otello, and finally in Falstaff, that miracle of the composer's eightieth year. As one would expect from the author of 'Caruso: The Man of Naples and the Voice of Gold', Mr. Ybarra neglects neither Verdi's private life nor his interesting personality. He tells of Verdi's early marriage, which ended tragically with the death of his wife and their two children; he tells of the period of despair which followed; and he tells of Verdi's awakening love for Giuseppina Strepponi, first his mistress, later his wife. This book, with its vigor and gusto, will take its place beside T. R. Ybarra's many previous successes." --Dust jacket. |
